The Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim have received the International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum for the Essential Homes Research Project. The Essential Homes Research Project is a prototype installation presented during 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale as part of the Time Space Existence exhibition, aimed at showcasing architectural and material solutions to provide secure, sustainable, and affordable housing for all. It comprised a housing model designed by the Norman Foster Foundation to meet essential human needs, including safety, comfort, and well-being.

Since 2004, The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, together with The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press, Ltd. have organized The International Architecture Awards as a way in which to honor the best, significant new buildings, landscape architecture, and planning projects designed and/or built around the world’s leading architects, landscape architects, and urban planners practicing nationally and internationally. The International Architecture Awards give an important global overview of the current aesthetic direction of today’s commercial, corporate, institutional, and residential work to the real estate, banking, business, and corporate community, as well as to the press and general public worldwide.